Hospitals accused of ‘tax on sick’ with car park fees
HOSPITALS across the country are being slammed for effectively “taxing the sick” after raking in a record £174 million in car parking charges.
The figure comes from data released following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Press Association to 120 NHS trusts in England. Some 111 responded.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the current state of NHS finances meant it was sometimes difficult to blame hospitals for trying to find money, although this did not make the current situation acceptable.
She added: “For patients, parking charges amount to an extra charge for being ill.”
As many as two thirds of trusts are making more than £1 million a year while more than half now charge disabled people to park.
The three main acute hospitals serving Hinckley, however, still retain free disabled spaces and offer reimbursements for those on benefits and reduced charging for those enduring lengthy treatment.
Charges at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield and Leicester General went up last autumn but remain among the cheapest in the East Midlands and among neighbouring trusts.
The rise was the first since 2011 and imposed due to increasing pressures on NHS budgets.
A spokesman for Leicester’s Hospitals said: “We charge our 15,000 staff and the almost 3,400 patients and visitors that come to us every day to park. From those charges we generate just £1,045,000 a year over and above what it costs us to run our car parks.
“We use that £1,045,000 to upgrade our car parks, clinics and wards. If we did not charge for car parking then we would have to find money elsewhere which would have a direct effect on patient care and the frontline services we provide.
“The idea that we are making lots of money out of car parking is misleading. We spend £3.2 million on maintaining our car parks, running our hospital hopper discounted bus service, security, lighting etc and in providing offsite parking for our staff. In 2016 we also spent £4.5 million on a new multi-storey car park to improve the experience of our patients and visitors.”
The tri-sites are one of the biggest hospitals trusts in the country, last year having treated 1,229,500 patients - 3,368 patients each day - together with 878,000 outpatient appointments some 2,405 every day.
For the 2016/17 financial year the trust raised £2.93 million from patient and visitor parking and £1.33 million from staff car parking.
When the parking charge increase was announced Darryn Kerr, director of estates and facilities said the trust hoped to install pay on exit machines this year.
He said: “We appreciate the charges may feel like a significant increase for our patients and visitors because it has been six years since we last reviewed them, but we have learned through the engagement process that we need to review parking charges more regularly and in line with inflation to stagger the costs more fairly. We recognise that increasing parking charges is never popular, but we do everything we can to keep charges down.
“If we did not charge for car parking then we would have to find money to provide safe, accessible parking for our patients and visitors elsewhere, which would have a direct impact on patient care and the frontline services we provide.”
The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham amassed the most in parking income across the year with £4,865,000.
Royal Surrey County hospital, in Guildford, charged the most at £4 per hour. A Department of Health spokesman said: “Patients and families should not have to deal with the added stress of complex and unfair parking charges. NHS organisations are locally responsible for the methods used to charge, and we want to see them coming up with flexible options that put patients and their families first.”
Parking remains largely free at hospitals in Scotland and Wales.